La Sen Westlake Tay Ho Homestay

Like many of us, I need a good night’s rest, which can be tricky in a city. Hanoi, the capital, relies heavily on motorbikes as the main form of transportation due to the lack of alternatives. People go everywhere on bikes, which means that on weekdays you’ll be disturbed by relentless, almost mindless, non-stop honking. Fortunately, this homestay is located on a calmer side street. I only realized how lucky that was after visiting the old quarter, where the cacophony is so overwhelming that I honestly wonder how people manage to recover their health at night. The staff here are naturally kind and caring. They greet you with genuine smiles, which is always a great advantage. Even though this is a paid rental, it doesn’t feel purely transactional—the human connection adds real value. The homestay offers a basic level of security: a coded lock at the main entrance and CCTV in public areas. I’m not sure how effective crime detection is in Hanoi, but the presence of these measures still provides some peace of mind. I don’t want to post any gross photos here so I’ll just share the bathroom images. It was either cleaned several months ago or never cleaned. It can give us an impression of overall level of standards of cleaning. The floor in the room seemed clean. Same tools are used to clean floors in the common areas and in the bedrooms. I stayed on the 4th floor. No elevator (and I didn’t see any notice about that), no help to bring luggage upstairs. If you have any movement difficulties you shall be aware of that. As typical, pictures are heavily edited and taken with wide angle lenses which makes things look better than they are. Room 401 hasn’t been refurbished or renovated properly, just painted quickly by an amateur leaving patchy areas and spilled paint everywhere in big splashes. The tiny balcony door has big holes in it making impossible to air conditioner create healthy atmosphere in the room. I don’t know if it’s possible to sleep there during cold winter time. The ceiling is leaking on the bed nonstop during and after any rain. There is no soundproofing at all but being on the 4th floor is rather bearable. This homestay doesn’t have hot water. I don’t know how they deal with it in winter. The owner has passed the moment to do the renovation properly. Now I don’t think this homestay is bookable.

Acceptable